Housing and planning

Good land-use planning is the unsung hero of environmental protection. Good planning can help slow the growth in road traffic, encourage urban regeneration, curb urban sprawl, protect the beauty and tranquillity of the countryside and safeguard wildlife habitats.

 

Planning
Planning decisions affect us all, yet we often have very little input. We want planning to be fairer, engage communities and protect the countryside as well as regenerate our towns and villages.

It really is quite simple. We want the right kind of development in the right places for the right reasons. CPRE North Yorkshire is not about saying no to all proposals for housing or any development, we just need to ensure that what is built is needed and the impact of the development does not outweigh the benefits.

CPRE has led the way supporting communities faced with speculative development enabling them to form their own local networks backed up by CPRE North Yorkshire districts. For example, in Embsay and Cononley, two conservation areas were saved from speculative predatory development and local people empowered and inspired to lobby the local authority to create a local plan that would truly reflect the needs of their villages.

 

Green belts
England’s Green Belts provide a breath of fresh air for 45 million people and stop towns from sprawling into the countryside. But they are under threat from the pressure of new developments.

The Green Belt around York is under threat. CPRE North Yorkshire campaigns hard to ensure that Green Belt is protected. Our work in relation to Green Belt is supported by the recent CPRE report 'Green Belt Under Seige: the NPPF 3 years on'. Accessed via www.cpre.org.uk 

 

Housing
Everyone needs a place to live, but the way in which this is being done means that urban sprawl is nibbling away at our green spaces. Developers should be making more use of previously developed sites within our towns.

We campaign hard to keep the countryside alive, we need affordable homes in the countryside, yet we are faced with applications dominated by larger more expensive homes which do not meet the needs of North Yorkshire. Brownfield sites should be developed first after all, we recycle our milk bottles, why on earth don't we recycle our previously developed land with the same enthusiasm?